The present invention, relates to a table-like platform, that can be used for assembling picture puzzle pieces into a completed picture. The platform, also having a plurality of inclined panels, serves as an alternative to a conventional table that is commonly used for supporting the pieces of a puzzle, while they are being fitted together to form a completed picture.
Picture puzzles commonly comprise five hundred, or more, separate pieces, having mating side edges, such that when the individual pieces are placed alongside each other in the proper order, the pieces fit together to form a picture. Quite often, the puzzle pieces have mating convex and concave sections, that interlock, to hold adjacent pieces together, while the picture puzzle is being assembled.
Conventionally, such picture puzzles are assembled into a complete picture by placing the individual pieces on a flat horizontal table surface, and fitting them together on a trial-and-error basis. When the picture puzzle contains a considerable number of pieces, a relatively large size table is required to contain all of the individual pieces. The person, or persons, assembling the picture puzzle pieces together, often have difficulty in clearly seeing all of the pieces, because the person's line of sight is acutely angled to the plane of the table, especially along the table rear edge, located away from the person's head. When a puzzle piece is viewed at an acute angle, i.e., along a sight line that is oblique to the plane of the puzzle piece, the shape of the puzzle piece appears slightly distorted, such that the person may not readily recognize that a particular puzzle piece fits into a given puzzle space. Often the person will search for several minutes to find a puzzle piece that can fit into a particular space, and then give up the search. If this situation is repeated a number of times, the person may lose interest in completing the puzzle.
The present invention is concerned with a platform that can be used to support the pieces of a puzzle, such that the individual pieces are more easily seen, whereby the person has a greater capability of selecting the correct puzzle piece to fit into any given puzzle space. A major aim of the present invention, is to enable the person to more readily facilitate fitting the various puzzle pieces together, without the endless searching that is often required with conventional arrangements.
The picture puzzle assembling platform would be exceedingly helpful for a bed-ridden person, an example would be having the portable puzzle-assembling platform clamped to a hospital bedside table, or a regular table, that would swing over the bed of the ill person. Further, it may be utilized for a handicapped person in a wheel chair, using the larger pedestal-type picture puzzle assembling platform, which would be built high enough for the wheel chair to move in as close as possible, as needed. Also, the present invention may be used for a person with arthritic conditions, as the puzzle would be closer, and the person would not have to reach into the far rectangular corners, as with a regular puzzle.